Fifteen Bells: [ACTION/WRITTEN]

[simplestgift]

[Archie woke up yesterday.  How is this new?  Well, after getting some fairly critical stab wounds from Grell, he was put on a ventilator and kept under sedation for a few days.  The ventilator was exchanged for a less impressive-looking concentrator yesterday and he was taken off sedation.  He spent yesterday sleeping anyway, since anesthesia doesn't generally leave you bright-eyed immediately afterward.

This morning, he is talking and eating Jell-o, which is a new experience. The most important bit comes written on the journal network in wobbly handwriting courtesy of the heart monitor clipped on his finger.]

I have been informed that I may have visitors. I'd like to know everyone is all right.

Kennedy

[Anyone who comes in will find him looking predictably weak and pale but lucid and in good spirits, or possibly catnapping after a dose of painkillers.

OOC: Purely for the sake of mercy, Archie is unaffected by the event.]

Comments

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[Her hand draws back slightly as her mind goes from checkers to thinking about her own attitude.]

I suppose. I've never seen the point in lamenting my lot in life when obviously I was born to die and then didn't. Every day is a gift, etc.

[Her tone is light, but her feelings are very complicated. Sure she hated living in the bubble from time to time (well, a lot of the time. Okay, most of the time) but it was a hate tinged heavily with love, since it was an expression of her father's devotion to her as well as the only thing keeping her alive. She has similar feelings for the device.

In the end she just moves one of the pieces she hasn't moved yet.]

[simplestgift]

[Archie, for the matter, blanks out. It wasn't as if he wasn't already feeling shame over his own reaction to the attack, but now it's suddenly worse because Ingrid has it worse than he ever could, surely. He doesn't even see the chess board, and after a moment, he suddenly blinks and takes a breath, as if he just rebooted.]

You're very brave.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[She laughs dismissively, a light sound that's almost more like a snort.]

Hardly. It's easy to accept something that's been there your whole life. Going to sea, now- that, I think, requires some bravery. [She can't even imagine being on a boat, much less a ship on the high sea. The idea of sea-sickness alone makes her nervous.]

[simplestgift]

[That breaks him out of his thoughts and he gives a smile.]

Easy to accept something that's been there your whole life. My grandfather told me stories until I was shivering to stow away aboard the next ship. He was in the navy as well, and had nothing but adventures to talk about. I'm fairly certain they were most of them true, mind you, he just didn't tell much about the endless waiting in between adventures, the sickness, the accidents, the flogging, it was all tidied up for a young boy's ears. But once I was in, there wasn't a very good way to get out, you know.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

How old were you when you went to sea for the first time?

[simplestgift]

Eleven. A volunteer for three years, usually running powder, then I was rated midshipman. An officer-candidate, if you will. I was acting-lieutenant at...[his face screws up to remember]...eighteen, I believe.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Wow. You must be quite the sailor, then. [Dude, eighteen? Also, she doesn't really know what acting-lieutenant means, so she might be more impressed than Archie deserves.]

[simplestgift]

Well, no. Most everyone joined round eleven or so. [That's usually the part he gets funny reactions to.] And fourteen was a common starting age for a midshipman.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

I guess it's different in your time period...

[simplestgift]

It's different in every time period.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

What does an acting-lieutenant do?

[simplestgift]

The duties of a lieutenant. But he's still a midshipman. It's a field promotion that can be confirmed later if he passes or has already passed the examination for lieutenant.

[And yes, he pronounces "lieutenant" with an "eff."]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

What does a lieutenant do then? [She's been pronouncing it the way Archie has, though in a second it's going to hit her.]

[simplestgift]

He's...an officer. [He's never encountered anyone who didn't know this, although he supposes she was literally in a bubble all her life.] His chief duty is to command the guns. If all goes well, he'll be promoted to commander, with his own little ship, then post-captain. Once you've made post-captain, all you have to do to make admiral is stay alive.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

Are you still an acting lieutenant? [How close are you to being an admiral?]

[simplestgift]

Actually, I'm a commissioned lieutenant now. Have been for the last several years.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful! What ship do you sail on?

[simplestgift]

Most lately, the Renown, under Captain Sawyer. I was fourth lieutenant.

[The past tense slips out without even a thought.]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

What sort of things did you do on the Renown? [This is so fascinating!]

[simplestgift]

Commanded and drilled the guns. Gave the captain's orders. Commanded cutting-out expeditions and boarding parties, when they came about. Stood watch, looked after the crew. Once, we took over a fort in Samana Bay. Captured three Spanish ships without shedding a drop of blood.

[Dodged the captain, helped start a mutiny, watched a dear friend get beaten half to death, abandoned the corpses of thirty-three deserters to the crabs, picked up the pieces while the incompetent first lieutenant bumbled all about the place, got shot and killed...]

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

[You're not the first person she's met who died before coming here.]

Did you ever meet any pirates?

[Because clearly that's what English navy ships in the nineteenth century did all day. Ah, Hollywood.]

[simplestgift]

Privateers, by the bushel. But the glory days of pirates were long before I was born.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

What's the difference between a privateer and a pirate?

[simplestgift]

A privateer is sanctioned, a pirate is not. A pirate attacks whoever he pleases, but a privateer answers to some king or other and won't attack that king's ships.

[intangible-girl.livejournal.com]

But they're basically the same thing? Just that one's on a leash and the other isn't? [Now she's wondering how many famous pirates were actually privateers and is ready to be quite disappointed.]